


The Time Has Come Today

by TheWincestRiots



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: 1960s, Alternate Universe, M/M, Time Travel, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-24
Updated: 2015-05-24
Packaged: 2018-04-01 02:25:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4002325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWincestRiots/pseuds/TheWincestRiots
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jensen is from a somewhat distant future where time travel is commonplace and is accidentally transported to 1960’s San Francisco instead of his intended temporal destination.<br/>A confused and somewhat belligerent Jensen is taken in by musician Jared to stay in a flophouse with his bandmates, Chad and Misha, who believe Jensen is just going through a bad acid trip when he keeps telling them he’s not in the right time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Jensen hadn’t started out as a thief.

He’d just been a dumb college kid hacking into the system to fix his grade, but he’d stumbled onto some documents he wasn’t supposed to see, some very illegal documents, and he’d gotten caught by the wrong people. He was basically given a choice between running some “errands” or death.

That was six years ago. This wasn’t the life he’d wanted. When he was young and idealistic he thought he’d like to be an actor, or maybe a musician. It’s not like he enjoys it, the stealing, hell he’d even tried to get out a few times, but somehow he always got pulled back in. There are some people you just don’t say no to, not if you want to keep breathing anyway. Danneel Harris was one of those people. She’d taken a shine to some book, first edition, last recorded location some tiny antique bookstore in New York City in 2009. Jensen didn’t really give a shit about the provenance of the artifact, so long as he got paid, and he knew Danneel paid well. He also knew that if he fucked it up or tried to fuck her over it’d be the last thing he did.

She had her own TMP(temporal matter portal) so he didn’t have to worry about dealing with Temporal Security when he returned, which could be tricky sometimes. It was strictly illegal to bring anything back with you from the past, no matter how innocuous an item seemed. Time tourists were often subjected to random searches and faced jail time, steep fines, and were banned from any further time travel if they were found to have so much as a leaf in their possession. He’s never gotten caught, but it’s nice not to have to think about it. This should be a simple grab ‘n go, just materialize at a discrete location, find his way to the bookstore, get his hands on the book, and activate the ret dev. He’s dressed in what he’s pretty sure should be inconspicuous attire for the time period, he’s got the address, and he’s seen a pic of the book so he knows exactly what he’s looking for.

“Your return device is set to activate on its own after four hours unless you hit it before then.” Daneel says, trailing her fingers suggestively over his wrist, where he’s wearing the ret dev, made to look like a stylish watch. He wants to pull his hand away, but she wraps her fingers around his wrist and tugs, pulling him in close, her mouth right next to his ear “We can have a little celebration when you return with my book. Do not disappoint me.”

Jensen just nods. Daneel is not a woman you say no to.

***

As Jensen slowly opens his eyes every part of his body is screaming “ _wrongwrongwrong_ ”.

Usually when he travels he just feels a slight dip in his stomach, like when an elevator stops, but this time was different. He remembers stepping into the TMP, nodding to Danneel as she activated it, and then- nothing.

He must have passed out, he thinks, though thinking is difficult to accomplish through the pounding in his head. His vision is blurry, and he feels dizzy as he blinks to clear it. He sits up and immediately regrets it, moaning as he pulls his knees up to rest his head between them.

He can hear people murmuring as they pass near him. His vision is a little clearer when he opens his eyes to take in his surroundings, and this time it’s his brain that screams “ _wrongwrongwrong_ ”.

He’s been to New York in the early 2000s on more than one occasion, and nothing about what he sees is right. The buildings are all wrong and the cars parked on the street next to the sidewalk he’s sitting on are wrong, even the air smells wrong.

“No” he says out loud “No, this isn’t right. _Shit._ ”

He tries to stand but his head is spinning again and he stumbles, winding up on his knees.

“Whoa there, buddy, you okay?” A warm voice asks as someone crouches in front of him.

Jensen can’t process any of this right now. He looks around, not even really seeing the concerned young man speaking to him.

“It’s the wrong time” he says, a wild edge of panic creeping into his voice. “I’m in the wrong time.”

The young man smiles reassuringly, clasping Jensen’s arm as he stands.

“Okay, man. Come on and let’s get some B12 in you, see if we can bring you back from this bad trip to the right time.”

His words bring some sense back to Jensen and he remembers his ret dev. Shaking the hand off his arm he presses the button that should return him to Danneel’s TMP. Nothing happens. He presses it again. Nothing. He’s still here, in the wrong time and place.

“No no no. Shit. No.”

He frantically presses the button over and over, refusing to accept its failure. He nearly jumps when two very large hands cover his own, one gently pulling his hand away from the ret dev. He’d nearly forgotten the guy in his panic.

“Hey, that’s a nice watch, man, you’ll be pretty mad at yourself if you break it. Come on, my place isn’t far. We’ll get some orange juice in you and you can come down in a safe place, yeah?”

Jensen just whispers “But it’s the wrong time” as he allows himself to be lead down the street.

The guy chattered on in a soothing tone as they made their way, but Jensen was too lost in his thoughts to listen to what he was saying. He’d never heard of a malfunctioning ret dev. It just didn’t happen. It wasn’t completely unheard of for a TMP to malfunction, sending someone to the wrong time like this, but the ret dev always brought you home. Always. He could not wrap his brain around it, this just couldn’t be happening.

Jensen found himself being pulled up a set of stairs, through an entry way and ushered into a small kitchen, large hands settling on his shoulders as he was gently pushed down onto a rickety wooden chair. For the first time he noticed just how tall the young man was, several inches taller than him, and Jensen was quite a respectable height. He leans down close, shaggy brown hair falling in his eyes, running those large hands over Jensen’s upper arms in a way that is actually quite comforting, despite the fact that Jensen isn’t used to being touched like this.

“Do you remember what you took?” He asks in a low voice.

Jensen just stares at him, confused. Hell, he’s taken lots of things, but nothing here. This isn’t even the right time or place for the thing he was supposed to take.

“You gotta be careful, man. There’s a lot of bad shit out there and not everyone’s as nice as me.” He smiles brightly, patting Jensen on the arm as he straightens to his full height. “You’re in a safe place now. Let’s get you that o.j., yeah? I’m Jared, by the way.”

As he turns away to get a glass out of the cupboard Jensen realizes the implication. This guy thinks he’s tripping!

“I’m not tri-" His brain catches up with him and he shuts his mouth before he can finish, because really, what is he going to say? _‘I’m not tripping, I’m from the future and I’ve traveled back to the wrong time and my return device isn’t working’_. Yeah, that’s sure to convince the guy he’s not on drugs.

He watches Jared’s broad back shift under his t-shirt as he considers his options. Danneel had said that the ret dev would return him automatically after 4 hours. Maybe it was just the button that was broken and he just had to wait it out. Please, Please let that be it, he thought.

The guy closed the refrigerator door muttering “Dammit Chad.”

He walked to the doorway that lead to the rest of the house, calling “Chad! Did you drink all the orange juice again?”

He waited a moment then yelled a little louder “CHAD!”

There was a thumping sound of someone coming down stairs as a voice called out “Relax, Jaybird, Misha went to the market to get some more.”

Jensen watched as a squinty eyed face appeared in the doorway, pushing past Jared into the kitchen. He groans when he sees Jensen sitting next to the table.

“Man, you can’t keep bringing home acid strays. That last one stole my high hat.”

Jared rolls his eyes. “That was one time. All the others have been really nice.”

Jensen watches as Chad grabs a beer out of the fridge.

“No, Jay, you’re really nice. Too nice.” He taps Jared’s chest with his beer on his way out of the kitchen.

“It doesn’t hurt to be nice." Jared calls after him.

“Fucking hurt me. I had to buy a new high hat.”

Jensen can hear his steps as he retreats back up the stairs. Jared shakes his head and sits down in one of the mismatched chairs at the table.

“Don’t mind him. You doin’ alright, man? You seem a little calmer.”

Jensen just nods slowly.

“Hey, what’s your name anyway?”

Jensen’s instinct in unfamiliar situations is to clam up, and part of him thinks he really should just leave, find a quiet corner where he can wait out whatever’s left of his four hours in this time alone and unnoticed. But there’s something about this guy, his openness and warmth, Jensen doesn’t want to leave just yet, and he doesn’t want to lie to him either.

“Jensen.”

Jared smiles, revealing deep dimples that Jensen hadn’t noticed before.

“Jensen. I like that.”

Jensen’s never really cared one way or another about his name, but he likes the way it sounds in Jared’s mouth.


	2. Chapter 2

A few hours later Jensen is feeling almost himself again.

Jared’s roommate Misha had shown up with orange juice and it actually had helped, he wasn’t dizzy anymore and he no longer felt like his brain was trying to forcibly escape his skull. He felt drained to the point of exhaustion, though.

The living room was a decent size, with several ratty armchairs and a high brass bed pushed up against one wall. Jensen was lying on the bed with his feet dangling over the side, eyes closed, listening to Jared pluck a beat-up acoustic guitar as he sat cross-legged next to him. Jared’s knee was touching his side and Jensen couldn’t remember ever feeling so comfortable with someone, except maybe his friend Chris, but he’d known Chris pretty much forever. Jensen’s experience had not made him a trusting person and he was surprised at how easy he found it to trust Jared after just a few hours of knowing him.

Still, he was glad his time was nearly up and he prayed that the ret dev went off like it was supposed to. He was a little afraid of how Danneel would react to him returning without her book, but as it was her TMP that malfunctioned, he figured she couldn’t really blame it on him, right?

He’d ascertained from listening to Jared ramble on that he was in San Francisco sometime in the 1960’s.

Though Jensen hadn’t really shared any details about himself he’d learned a lot about Jared over the course of the afternoon. Jared told him how he’d hitched out from Texas with just a duffle bag of clothes and his guitar strapped to his back, fresh out of high school. He’d met up with Misha somewhere in Arizona and they’d traveled the rest of the way together in Misha’s beat up station wagon.

“The first few weeks we were here, Misha’s girl, Vicki, she goes to UC Berkley, she’d sneak us into her dorm room at night and then in the daytime we’d go play music on the street for money, like buskers, y’know? That’s how we met Chad.”

He laughs, shaking his head at the memory. “One day we were playing on the corner just up the street from here and this guy comes up, like right in the middle of a song, snatches the cigarette right out of Misha’s mouth, takes a drag and says ‘What you assholes need is a drummer.’ And then he scoops up our collection hat, I mean, there wasn’t more than a couple dollars in it, but still, he’s walkin’ off with our money, right? Mish and I just stood there starin’ at him with our mouths hangin’ open, and he turns around and says ‘Well, you losers comin’ or what?’ So we scrambled on over here after him, been here ever since.”

Jared has a fond smile on his face as he goes back to idly plucking his guitar. Jensen notices that the light in the room has dwindled while they were talking and looks out the large bay window at the darkening sky. If he’s estimating the time right it shouldn’t be too long before his time is up and his ret dev activates, if it’s going to.

For a moment he almost hopes it doesn’t. But then he thinks of Chris and his other friends, and his mama and his little sister and what they’d think if he just disappeared. He’d probably be putting Chris in danger. He’s not involved in Jensen’s illegal activities, but they’ve lived together since college and Jensen didn’t like to think what would happen to him if certain people came looking for him and decided Chris knew where he was.

No, the ret dev was going to work. It had to. He didn’t really want to just vanish into thin air in front of Jared, though. He closed his eyes and listened to Jared play a sprightly melody while he thought about just how exactly he could slip away. He should just thank Jared for his help and leave, find an alley or something away from curious eyes to wait it out. He didn’t really want to leave, though.

Jensen must’ve drifted off for a moment because he didn’t notice that Jared wasn’t playing anymore until he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey, man, you look beat. You can go up and sleep in my room if you want.”

“Uh, yeah, okay. Thanks.” Jensen says. That should work out perfectly, he thinks.

Jared leads him up the narrow staircase to a small room, sparsely furnished with a large mattress covered in an old threadbare quilt, a beat-up dresser whose top is littered with haphazardly stacked books and loose papers, and, incongruously, an enormous claw-footed porcelain bathtub.

“I know it doesn’t look like much, but the bed’s real comfy.” Jared shrugs and gives him an apologetic smile. “Well, I guess I’ll leave you to it. Sleep as long as you need to, Jensen.”

“Thanks, Jared. I really appreciate, uh…everything, y’know?”

Jared just smiles and closes the door, leaving Jensen alone.


End file.
